Rockford videographer Pablo Korona, best known for his Our City, Our Story series, teamed up with rrstar.com reporter Brian Leaf for a documentary on the struggles of two single mothers — Dicie Cooper and Jordan Carpenter — who are trying to rise out of poverty.

"This video is a 10-minute look into the lives of two women who are labeled as single moms in poverty," said Korona. "You see there is more complexity to it than just the poverty label."

Korona said the video puts human faces on poverty.

"This is an important project to me," he said. "These are people, not just statistics, that we in the community need to be thinking about.

"Poverty is one of the many problems in the community that need to be considered when we discuss improving this city."

In Winnebago and Boone counties, the ranks of the poor rose from 29,152 in 2000 to 60,544 in 2010, according to census figures. In the city of Rockford, the number of poor quadrupled, leaving nearly 1 in 4 adults and 37 percent of children surviving on household incomes below the poverty line.

Leaf said he knew a long-form video story would be a great addition to the story being published in Sunday's Rockford Register Star, but it was more than he could do on an iPhone.

"Pablo tells great stories through video, and I knew we needed someone of his caliber to help tell this one," said Leaf. "This collaboration is a deep look into the lives and struggles of two families, and it's unlike any video project that I've ever done."

Read this story at rrstar.com this weekend and in the Sunday edition of the Rockford Register Star. View the video now.